Massimo Vitali was born in Italy in 1944. In 1964, he graduated from The London School of Printing with a degree in photography. Vitali worked as a photojournalist and a cinematographer. His more recent work can be considered as fine art photography.

Vitali’s chosen perspective for some of his works is from a podium (four or five meters high), with the use of large-format film cameras which are used to capture high-resolution details over a broad expanse in everyday scenes such as beaches.

He is renowned for his large-scale colour photographs depicting the masses at leisure. In his beach scenes, ski resorts and tourist destinations, Vitali balances both formal and narrative details, re-interpreting historical landscape painting through the panoramic lens of photography. Vitali has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries internationally, and his work is included in the collections of the Reina Sofia, Madrid, Guggenheim Museum, New York, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.